Transformation Matrix

[trustycrowbar]

[The basement of the labs was dark and still, a graveyard of steam pipes and forgotten items and disused equipment that no one really wanted to see anymore. The area was all too familiar to Gordon; this was where his suit's charging station was sequestered.]

[But this isn't why he had come here this time. He coughed, leaning against the wall; pale, clammy, and trying to catch ragged shreds of breath. His lungs felt like they were on fire. At first he thought it was just stress, or exhaustion, or some fucking flu virus... he doubles over and coughs from the bottom of his lungs. Pieces of bloody... something, splatter to the floor. His own lung tissue maybe. Oh god, no wonder he couldn't breathe. There's plenty of soft defenseless tissue for the nanites to mess around with in there...]

[Yes, he knew exactly what was going on. That's why he wanted to get as far down and away from people as possible. Lock himself up. Hopefully the others will figure out what happened to him--]

[He lurches into another violent coughing fit and doubles over, wrenching himself to the floor. And those splatters of inert bloody tissue recoil from the impact, and slowly begin to inch away.]

[Video]

[Oh hey, look, it's one of those wormy scientist guys! Why is the background so dark...?]

"Ah, is this thing on? Oh, alright. Ahh... ahem... It seems that just to compound the difficulty the power to the labs has gone out. No one is sure of the cause, and to top it off our illustrious Mister Freeman has gone missing. I knew the boy couldn't handle the pressure of administration. It may be a while before we can--wait, what was that? No, over there. By the air duct! Oh FINE, I'll go looOH GOD--"

[The rest is cut off by screams and a sickening prolonged crunch. It's safe to say that the Labs would like some help.]

Comments

[Widespread broadcast]

[very_model_of]

Power out, labs compromised. Further work impossible. Suggest evacuating the facility immediately.

[Action]

Mordin is leading a group of other scientists down darkened corridors, lit only by the light on his Omni-tool. They hadn't liked him bossing everyone around when the illusion of safety had extended through the lab, but now that the lights were out and things could be heard scratching around in the walls, suddenly a scientist with an armored labcoat looked like someone who might know what he's doing.

[longstreakofnothing]

[Theta Sigma is there, trailing after Mordin and all too interested in what's going on.]

[trustycrowbar]

[The scientists huddle around him, squinting into the darkness.]

"How did they even get in here? There's no way they could have!" "But they DID. Stay away from the air ducts! They like to use them!" "Oh dear god..." "Just where in the hell is Freeman? He's supposed to be the one keeping the labs safe!" "...Did you hear that?"

[A quiet tapping in the darkness behind them. The stragglers scramble to keep up.]

[very_model_of]

Mordin glances behind him, flashing his light back for a moment to see if there was something shadowing the group. He didn't break stride, though. Had to keep moving. It was just down the stairs at the end of the hall to get to the main lobby of the labs. "Don't stop."

[longstreakofnothing]

[All the noise is spooking even Theta Sigma, though he's still held onto his adventurer's glee.] Right behind you. Only... d'you know where we're going?

[the_ko_stands_for_tiger]

*The sound of something noisy can be heard! It's knocking over things and swearing! Oh no, what could it be?!

...oh, it's a middle-aged man with his foot in a bucket, trying to shake it off.*

Goddamn piece of junk! Stop being in the way of my walking!

[trustycrowbar]

[This startles the scientists in one collectively-labcoated clump.

"Shhh!" "Good god, are you TRYING to let them know we're here?!" "I'm too brilliant to die..." "--you got your degree online, you hack, you're not fooling anyone."

[There's a sudden, loud and suspcious crash ahead. Turning the corner they'll find the last few pebbles bouncing down over a pile of rubble that covers the stairs, completely blocking the path. There's also a flash of oily red in the darkness as something draws back into the ceiling. Looks like they're not getting out THAT way.]

[very_model_of]

"No way forwards. Would take too long to clear. Don't like this. Being herded."

Mordin considered the problem quickly. There were several other ways out of the building, but they were all far further from here. If whatever this thing was could block one exit, it was likely it could block all the exits in short order. Creating an alternate way out was far safer. "Need explosive. Blow a hole in the wall. May be able to improvise something in lab upstairs."

[longstreakofnothing]

If we're being herded, is it going to let us go upstairs. Might be better to see where it wants us to go.

[He has the instinctive feeling that diverting from the course it wants would be very bad. Not sure how, just that it would be bad.]

[the_ko_stands_for_tiger]

Man, of all the friggin' times to not --

*He manages to get the bucket off. SOMEHOW.*

So what, we just supposed to let the damn thing tell us what to do?

[trustycrowbar]

[There are sudden strange snarls from the other side of the pile of rubble, and one can hear uncoordinated scratching. Wait. So something was over there, something hungry by the looks of it, and yet that tendril had collapsed the foyer to keep them from going in...]

"Oh no! It's surrounded us!" "AHHH! There's another one!"

[The other panicked scientist points at another tendril, half-oozed out of an air vent and waving idly. The hallway it's in the direction of leads down. Mordin would recognize it as being the direction of the biology labs.]

[very_model_of]

Mordin looked down the hall at the tendril, sparing a sidelong glance for Kotetsu.

"Definitely not. Can't go down. Not going back. Only other way, up."

After all, the stairs may be collapsed beneath them, but they go both ways.

[longstreakofnothing]

[Looking at the tendril and then at the wreckage of the stairs, Theta Sigma comes to the realisation that he's going to have to agree regardless of his misgivings.]

Up it is, then.

LOG STYLE

[faithful_kitsune]

A single point of light illuminates the way. Ran's paper shikigami floats in front, helping guide her and the group of scientists in her wake.

"Stay close now. We mustn't have any more fatalities. And keep your wits about you; the creature could be anywhere right now."

She sighs, looking around. She spots a vent and sends another shikigami down it to monitor. Somewhere in the pit of her stomach, she knows that Gordon's disappearance and the sudden attack on the lab is connected, but she doesn't want to admit it... even if the statistical probability of anything else is astronomical.

[third_alternative]

Rex follows closely behind, hands balled into fists and ready to build machines at a moment's notice if need be. It's behind him that a small group of terrified scientists huddle together.

"Don't have to tell me that. We just need to figure out where it is--all this clanging is just making it more confusing."

[trustycrowbar]

Ran's shikigami will find a lot of darkness and dust in that air vent. The glow reflects off something slick and red that writhes back like a coiling snake... is it afraid of the thing's light? Or...

Meanwhile one of the scientists pipes up:

"What makes you so sure there's just ONE of them?"

The darkness gives an answer, not from the direction of the air vent but from down the hall. A glimmer of the same slick red, like a blood clot that hasn't quite hardened, but this one completely free and shaped into a beastlike thing that skulks forward on four oozing limbs.

[faithful_kitsune]

"Tch --"

Ran reels back. She'd use stronger force, but now that she knows these things may be someone she knows, that's not an option. Seems like it's spellcard rules for now.

She processes the reaction of the thing in the vent to her shikigami. Such things need better verification, though. She pulls out three more -- nearly the maximum of what she can handle -- and flings them towards the creature, their flimsy shapes bursting to life and light and shooting forth. No shots yet, however; she wishes merely to gauge reaction.

[third_alternative]

Screw gauging reaction! It's there, it's shambling, and it's monstrous. That translates to "smash it into the ground" in Rex-speak!

He rushes past Ran and as he closes in on the monster, builds one arm into a giant fist. He reels it back and aims to give it a good, hard punch.

[trustycrowbar]

Ran's spellcard experiment causes nothing but a stare; not even the recoil she saw in the vent. It does distract it long enough for Rex's punch to connect however, bits of red ichor splattering against the wall! And... that splatter starts to coalesce the moment it does, pooling at the bottom.

Meanwhile the half he's still fighting is still a bit larger than him, and throws itself at Rex to pin him to the ground.

[faithful_kitsune]

Ran moves her hand slightly. The shikigamis move to surround the creature, and as the creature lunges, they begin firing a series of danmaku at it. There's no time to linger on disproved hypotheses.

[trustycrowbar]

The bullets pepper the clumsy creature, sending even more chunks against the wall.

"Oho, fantastic!" "THAT's how you do it!" "...Oh, I... is it me or is that stuff still moving?"

It is. The pool formed at the base of the wall is already starting to bulge and form itself into a clot-beast all over again.

...two, in fact. And both look rather pissed off.

[third_alternative]

Oh great.

Rex does not stop to think about the circumstances or the consequences of what he might do.

No, instead, he just tries punching them harder.

~*~Flawless logic~*~

[faithful_kitsune]

"Stay near me, all of you!" Ran repositions the shikigami. Unlike Rex, she realizes brute force may not be the answer here. In which case, she needs to spot something, an Achilles heel of sorts. She hopes Rex can keep them distracted long enough for her to monitor through the shikigami.

The niggling feeling once again that she should be more capable than this enters her mind, but she fights it off.

[trustycrowbar]

The one Rex punched splatters and reforms, with a third smear slowing drawing itself together. The creatures split up, circling Ran and the scientists as the nanites in each individual bloodbeast get to work replacing their aqueous bulk. Soon they're both just as large as the original. Tearing them apart doesn't work, obviously. Maybe, you know, actually CURING them would...

The both bear down and growl, but the lunge is interrupted by a flash of lighter red and a startled gurgle as one of the beasts is violently pulled back and slammed up against the wall by...

a bunch of tendrils?

While the one is bound up against the wall, the other regains its treacherous courage to attack the nice pile of squishy humans and the fox girl.

[third_alternative]

Rex never actually considers curing in the middle of a fight. When something is trying to kill him, his first instinct is to punch back, not lovingly stroke it into submission.

...Although lovingly stroking them is starting to sound like a good option yeah. For lack of any other options, he grits his teeth, pushes his hand into the nearest monster, and hopes he can cure it before it smacks him into a wall.

He nods at the other monster, the one that was pulled by tendrils. "You think there's another monster we're dealing with in here too?"